Slippery road mishap makes for amazing photo

The driver of the blue 4x4 pickup lost control of the vehicle, skidded off the road and had the truck ramp up a power pole guide wire.

Author:
Dana Thiede

Published:
9:15 AM CST November 9, 2018

Updated:
5:24 PM CST November 9, 2018

ROSEVILLE, Minn. - You can just imagine the phonecall.

"Yeah, boss... I'm going to be a little late."

A driver in Roseville Friday morning ran into some trouble with the snowy, icy roads. Many did, as documented by the avalanche of crashes, spinouts and slowdowns that were on MnDOT's Twitter feed this morning. When the numbers come in later Friday afternoon the number of incidents is sure to be in the hundreds.

Not your average day for this tow driver, who took extra steps to get the wayward truck off the guide wire. (Rosevile FD)

Thing is, most of the mishaps don't look like this one. The driver of the blue 4x4 pickup lost control of the vehicle while driving on the 2500 block of Walnut Street around 7:30 a.m., skidded off the road and had the truck ramp up a power pole guy-wire.

Roseville Fire Chief Tim O'Neil tells KARE 11 the driver was unable to get out of the vehicle due to its precarious position on the guide line and instability. Had the driver shifted his weight it might have caused the vehicle to slide off the wire and possibly roll.

The driver remained motionless in the truck so as not to cause it to tip off the wire. Fire rescue crews removed him from the vehicle. (Roseville FD)

Fire crews stabilized the vehicle and removed the driver from the cab of the pickup. The man wasn't injured... unless bruised pride counts.

The accident caused a small temporary power outage in the area.

Things were tough on MN roads Friday morning. Statewide troopers responded to 115 crashes, with another 38 drivers spinning out or leaving the road. (MnDOT)

Plenty of other motorists had a tough start to the day as well. The State Patrol reports that between 5 and 10 a.m. across the Twin Cities metro, troopers responded to 85 crashes, 11 of them involving injury. An additional 22 vehicles spun out or left the road.

Statewide the numbers were slightly bigger, with a total of 115 crashes, 15 involving injury.